Beethoven's first attempt at a violin concerto...

[Preston]

I was reading Gerhard's book Memories of Beethoven and read the sentence, which is the last sentence in the the book:

Josef Hellmesberger has recently brought a new jewel into the constellation of the master's works, by his discovery and splendid performance of the first movement of a second violin concerto (in the archives of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde), which goes someway to reward the never satisfied audience.

In the editors notes, (211) states:

The first movement of a Violin Concerto in C major (Fragment), WoO 5, begun about 1790-1792 in Bonn, was completed by Hellmesberger and published in 1879 with dedication to Gerhard von Breuning.

Has this fragment been professionally recorded? Is there anyway to hear the fragment? Any information on this work?

[Hofrat]

Yes, it has been recorded. I believe I have at least two recordings. I am not close to my sources now, but I will get back to you shortly.

[Hofrat]

I now have access to my sources. My two recorrdings of the C-major violin concerto movement are as follows:

1. Deutsche Gramaphone's "Complete Beethoven."

2. ASV's recording that never saw the light of day due to a squabble over rights between the conductor, the orchestra, and ASV. I was lucky to get a copy of the master before the dispute started.

[Preston]

Thank you for the reply Hofrat. I will have to see if I can find it on a single disc, . Hopefully so.

I was shocked for a minute when I read that there was a lost 2nd violin concerto. Then after a quick read of the editor's notes I realized that it was a very early fragment.

I am still wanting to hear a recording of Beethoven's "not worthy" guitar concerto, desperately.

[Michael]

This is one of those works that I really wish Beethoven had completed but only 259 bars have survived. If I remember rightly, the whole exposition section is there plus a few bars of the development. The DGG edition contains a completed version by Wilfried Fischer, 1952.
However, the version on the complete Cascade/Amado edition contains just the remaining fragment. If you want accuracy, that's the one to listen to, although it's very disconcerting when the music stops in mid air, so to speak.
Incidentally, I think I read somewhere that there is a theory that one or other of the Romances for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 50, might have been the slow movement of this concerto.

[Preston]

Thank you for that good information Michael. I would rather hear the fragment, instead of someone trying to write like the master.

[Marek Krukowski]

There is a recording of preserved fragment made by Karl Suske, Gewandhausorcheter Leipzig and Heinz Bongartz for GDR Eterna Gesamtaufnahme in 1971. I have got it on LP, but you can find it on this CD:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/...lbum_id=170481

[Marek Krukowski]

in 1971.

I've chek it on the LP cover. The recording was made in April 1970.

[gardibolt]

As I recall, the score is in a state that it's evident it was in fact once a complete work; it's just that only a large chunk of the 1st movement is known to survive. Alas, no sketches are known for it either, so there's not even a way to attempt a reconstruction of the balance of the piece (though several have attempted to finish the first movement).

[Preston]

Thanks for that information gardibolt. Are you sure that the work is not a fragment but was at one point and time completed?

Also, I think that I remember someone writing on this website that you work on the website Unheard Beethoven, is this accurate?

[Roehre]

I was reading Gerhard's book Memories of Beethoven and read the sentence, which is the last sentence in the the book:

Josef Hellmesberger has recently brought a new jewel into the constellation of the master's works, by his discovery and splendid performance of the first movement of a second violin concerto (in the archives of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde), which goes someway to reward the never satisfied audience.

In the editors notes, (211) states:

The first movement of a Violin Concerto in C major (Fragment), WoO 5, begun about 1790-1792 in Bonn, was completed by Hellmesberger and published in 1879 with dedication to Gerhard von Breuning.

Has this fragment been professionally recorded? Is there anyway to hear the fragment? Any information on this work?

Recently I listened to this work (Violin concerto in C WoO 5) in four different versions in four different recordings.

* the fragment
* completed and with added trumpet and drum parts by Hellmesberger (1879)
* completed by Manen (1930s)
* completed by Fischer (1972)


Beethoven Violin Concerto in C is IMO unintentionally a fragment of 259 bars:

-contrary to Beethoven's usual composing habits, i.e. not writing down full scores before the sketching at least of one movement if not a complete work grosso modo had finished, the VC is in full score, and most of the dynamics, phrasing etc. has been meticulously added

-the handwriting is very readable, almost calliography - which it very, very unusual for beethovenian sketches (as these were not meant to be read by others, only for the composer's eyes only)

-the fragment ends on a reverse side, i.e. a left page of the score, even more suggesting that the right page simply has disappeared.

therefore the instrumentation of the fragment has IMO got to be taken serious, without adding any other parts.

============

The fragment was essentially published in Schiedermeier's "Der Junge Beethoven" (1925) as appendix. Before that the manuscript was the only available source.

That was the point of departure for the first person to "complete" the fragment: Hellmesberger, director of the Vienna conservatoire and of the Musikfreunde's board, friend of Brahms' and a composer in his own right. He edited the fragment, added trumpet and timpani parts and published this version, which already around 1900 seems to have been unavailable.

The music is rather impressive, but though the fragment dates from the late Bonn years (1790) it sounds like a concerto in the vein of the "emperor", which IMO cannot be right.


========

There are at the present two completions of the work which to some degree can claim authenticity.

The first one is by Joan Manen (1933), the other by Wilfried Fischer (1972).
Manen accepts that the manuscript was originally complete and therefore the music as it stands should be kept unchanged. Fischer thinks the fragment needs some editing. To be honest: the differences hardly can be discovered just on hearing, and only after seeing the scored you'l see -and consequently afterwards hear- the differences.

The completions however ARE different:
Manen (as Hellmesberger earlier) composed some bars of his own to get the exposition of the solo-part with which the fragment ends to an in his eyes satisfactory conclusion.
Fischer however exclusively uses material which Beethoven himself already had used in the fragment.
This leads to some stiff figuration and some bars of which one immediately says: Beethoven would have done something differently.



The recordings;
Though it is very hard to get a score of the Hellmesberger version, I do possess a privately made recording of this version, recorded in 1973. Don't know who is the violinist, but the orchestra is the Dutch Radio Kamer Orkest. It is played with great accuratesse and enthousiasm i have to say.

The Manen version I spun is from a Da Camera Magna LP (SM 91027), Pina Camirelli playing with the Heidelberger Kammerorchester, conductor Richard Laugs (as I’ve got that LP since 1977 the recording could be as old as 1973). Well played, not really top performances, but enjoyable. Coupled with Beethoven’s violin romances as well as with Reger’s ones (btw: opus 50 nos. 1 and 2 – no coincidence I think)

The Fischer version I’ve got is played by Gidon Kremer on DGG, in this case from the Complete Beethoven (1997) volume 2, but I’ve got a 1978 DGG-LP where this work is combined with the Romances opp.40 and 50 as well as with Schubert’s only concert piece, the Konzertstück D.345 (on DGG 2531.193).
Kremer is accompanied by the London symphony Orcehstra, conductorEmil Tchakarov

I listened to the fragment in an Eastern German recording by Karl Suske, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, conducted by Heinz Bongarts on Berlin Classics 0093092BC (a CD recorded 1971, combined with the other Beethoven works for violin and orchestra).

[Very recently this fragment has been released on a CD with the concerto in D and the 2 Romances in the state as it has come down to us: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major Op 61; Romance No 2 for Violin and Orchestra in F Major Op 40; Romance No 1 for Violin and Orchestra in G major Op 50; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Wo05 fragment (original manuscript version) Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin) / Orchestre des Champs-Elysees / Philippe Herreweghe (conductor)
Naive V5174 (CD).]

For the complete mvt my preference is definitely the Gidon Kremer one, though the fragment is played exceptionally well too.